And Everybody Knows
by Ruth Goldhawk
Summary: Hermione snaps and in doing so turns Hogwarts in to the land of the spurious songfic
1. The Silence was so Thick

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me because I'm not JK Rowling.  
  
The Silence Was So Thick  
  
Hermione Granger had been sitting at the long table in the Great Hall for fifteen minutes listening to the jeering from the Slytherins. "Hey mudblood," "listen to this mudblood," "what you doing here mudblood?" And it was driving her mad. 

And that was when she snapped. 

She pressed the heels of her palms against the table and stood straight as an ironing board at a distinct right angle to the surface of the table and she yelled. She yelled song lyrics. Later on she wouldn't be able to tell people the thought behind this outburst, years later she would sit around and laugh about it with the friends that would survive their days at Hogwarts but just at that moment something came upon her. Her subconscious just seemed to leap in to the forefront of her mind.  
  
"But that's just the trouble, desegregation, mass paticipation, unification, do things gradually will bring more tragedy...."  
  
The entire hall stopped, a few mutters sounded from the Gryffindor table, "Nina Simone? Is she quoting Nina Simone?" A number of Ravenclaws laughed, a few actually let out a whoop. The Slytherins looked confused, perplexed and a little angry and then one of them, clearly deciding that it simply didn't matter, got up and threw some mashed potato in her direction. Within five minutes every member of the hall was engaged in an odd and unseemly war. The muggle-born children who had understood the reference had taken it upon themselves to howl slogans as they lobbed food at each other. "Rights for Mudbloods" a small Gryffindor girl screamed at the top of her lungs and the cry was taken up by other members of the house until the room was filled with the words. Showing himself to be rather more sophisticated one Ravenclaw boy of the same age was screaming about his basic human rights with every handful. 

My God, Hermione wondered as she huddled underneath the table, what have I started? Will they start using their fists next? Muggle heritage, so rarely referred to within school walls seemed to have taken a rather large place in the proceedings.  
  
Finally the staff rushed in to the hall, responding to the aggression rather belatedly, they had to use magic to split and control the brawling masses. Even the Slytherins, looking rather more thoughtful than usual, refused to tell them who'd started it. The students had bonded.  
  
The next day, walking to her Arithmancy lesson, Hermione Granger was rather startled to find a smiling Draco Malfoy singing softly in her vicinity. Her eyes welled up when she realised precisely what he was singing. "Where am I going, what am I doing, I don't know, I don't know. Just try to do your very best, stand up be counted with all the rest." 


	2. When I get old I will wait outside your ...

Disclaimer: I don't own this, more's the pity, me and JK could get all squiffy. Sitting in the parlour, drinking cups of tea, what could be more wondrous than Harry and me?  
  
When I get old I will wait outside you house because your hands have got the power meant to heal  
  
It got weirder and frankly far less moving. The sight of Crabbe and Goyle striding down the corridor in perfect time with each other and bursting in to song nearly ruptured her brain. The part of the song that they chose to sing might have had something to do with it. That and the twinkle fingers that accompanied it- "This is a show tune but the show hasn't been written for it yet."  
  
Colin Creevey was spotted, off-key in the dungeons, cornering a Slytherin with "Me and my people just about do." The Slytherin looked terrified. It was uncertain as to whether the fierce expression on Colin's face or the pitch of his voice scared him more.  
  
Hermione couldn't resist taking an encore in the Great Hall one breakfast time. "I bet you thought I was kidding didn't you?" She half directed it at the students, half at the staff who all looked very suspicious, particularly when three quarters of the school stood up on their seats and yelled "everybody knows about Mississippi Goddamn."  
  
A muggle-born Ravenclaw first year apparently got up on the table in Potions Class and rather tunefully sang, in a rather untimely outburst, "All I want is equality for my sister, my brother, my people and me." Snape took 20 points and asked her to detail her meaning in a 5 foot essay. He got double the amount back and almost stopped breathing from the shock. He confessed to Minerva McGonagall that he would have taken more points but she sounded endearingly like Jimmy Somerville and he had a bit of a thing for him. Hermione later discovered that almost every Seventh year in the house had contributed a sentence. It apparently read like a manifesto rather than an essay.  
  
Millicent Bulstrode announced to her common room, with the voice of a gospel singer in training, "this whole country is full of lies, you're all gonna die and die like flies." When Pansy Parkinson started to go for her she was halted in her tracks by Malfoy and his henchmen. No one looked more shocked than Malfoy himself but he did explain, in a very detailed manner exactly why he agreed with the other girl's sentiments to Pansy while she was magically bound to a chair. He stopped rather suddenly, sporting a rather bored expression and left the room to the sound of Crabbe and Goyle in perfect harmony. "Why don't you see it, why don't you feel it, I don't know, I don't know."  
  
While Harry Potter didn't exactly get this strange mood that had come over Hogwarts he did join in rather briefly. Sitting up in bed in the middle of the night he howled these lyrics to the Sixth Year boys dormitory. "Black cat crossed my path, I think everyday's gonna be my last." Seamus threw a pillow at him and calmly told him that he was thinking of the Grim, not a cat.  
  
When Voldemort announced that he was taking Sixth and Seventh years as Death Eaters only one Gryyfindor and a Hufflepuff went. Apparently they both really hated Muggle music. He killed them both in a fit of rage and demanded to know where his little fledglings had gone.  
  
The teachers looked rather confused when Pansy Parkinson stepped on to the Slytherin table and started to sing. The teachers had been looking confused for months. The students were really enjoying it. "Freedom is mine and I know how I feel It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me I'm feeling goooooodd." Quite a few people rolled their eyes and Ron Weasley threw an egg at her. The second Hogwarts food fight was characterised by laughter. Everyone laughed when Pansy got Ron in a headlock and started shoving breakfast down his collar. Hermione Granger propped her elbow on Draco Malfoys shoulder and grinned wickedly "Hold on tight, you know she's a little bit dangerous." The hall fell silent as he howled in pain. A breathless silence that was only broken with the sound of the son of a Death Eater proclaiming "no Hermione! No Roxette, god help us! Last time you sang lyrics the whole school followed suit, this could kill me!"  
  
As they left the hall together there was a weird cackle. "It must have been love" sang Dumbledore's voice. Snape didn't look impressed, "But it's not over now you stupid old coot!" 


End file.
